Brazil Trip 2025!!

By: Rob Garland, Harvest For Kids Co-ordinator

Our Brazil trip started Feb 17, 2025 in Labrea, in the State of Amazonas, Brazil.  We had taken a small, 9 seater Cessna, from the large commercial city of Manaus to get to Labrea.  Labrea is a small city deep in the southern Amazon area of Brazil, not far from Bolivia and Peru.  It is situated on the Purus River, a river that eventually winds north to empty into the Amazon. After getting to Labrea, we immediately settled into our accommodations for the next few days, a large houseboat.  

The houseboat

Our group consisted of my wife Andrea and our 2 teenagers from Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, and our supporters and ministry partners, Marcelo and Lana Alencar from Winkler, Manitoba and their 2 children, with Marco Marinho our Brazil leader for Children’s Camps International.  Lana often acted as our interpreter since she is fluent in Portuguese and English.  

CCI has been ministering to children through camps in Brazil for many years, thanks to our donors and supporters.  The main established camps are managed from our regional headquarters in Fortaleza, Brazil on the north east Atlantic coast of the country.  

The purpose of this trip was to determine the potential for children’s ministry in this new area.  The concept was introduced by our Brazil leader Marco.  He has been working with the Brazilian Mennonite Brethren (MB) church with some children’s camps in the Amazon Region of Brazil.  The MB suggested that our CCI camps could also be easily integrated into their current ministry in the Purus River region.  Historically, this Purus River area is one of the last areas that missionaries reached.  The MB are currently working with 6 separate groups, comprised of Indigenous tribes and Ribeirinhos or River People.  These are two separate cultures connected by geography.  The river has traditionally been the highway for travel, information and trade.  But times have changed and surprisingly we found that most of these communities have Starlink and iphones!  We have the ability to deliver our children’s programming to our leaders and volunteers into the most remote regions of the globe through virtual means.

Most of the small communities already have churches built and the MB are currently building a floating church.  The MB have become trusted by the communities by doing humanitarian work such as building, painting and mechanical work.  

Our journey began when we travelled 14 hours upstream overnight to the communities that have been ministered to by the Mennonite Brethren 

Precautions need to be taken in this area for Yellow Fever, Typhoid and Malaria.  Bugs are ever present so we discovered that long pants and long sleeves are a must.  Most repellent does not work on those Amazon mosquitos!  The local food was cooked on the boat and the crew was excellent.  We sometimes caught our own fish for supper.  Sweet coffee, rice and beans and local fruits were always part of a meal as well as yucca in some form.  It was acai berry season so we were able to observe the processing and had the opportunity to try some. The food was cooked and was a treat to eat what they ate.  We even had crocodile appetizers. We connected personally with the locals who I showed pictures of ice fishing and we shared in the community meals.  We even joined in swimming in the river with the kids.  My wife and I were humbled and full of joy when our daughter decided to take this opportunity to be baptized in the river!

The MB church has been ministering to this area for many years and have identified some open and receptive Indigenous communities, mostly within the Paumari tribe.  They have sent their local Christian leaders for discipleship training.  The MB have observed that these leaders are influencing other tribes, some who will not let foreigners on their land, and are leading them to Christ.

The River People (RP) are descendants of workers who came to the area many generations ago from distant colonial Portuguese settlements to harvest rubber from trees.  When that industry declined they stayed, and now survive on subsistence farming and fishing.  

They are both open to hearing the gospel and accept the MB visits openly.  

I had the opportunity to speak in the communities regarding CCI and Harvest for Kids.   We also were able to invite several of them for a bible study on the houseboat. Our country leader Marco also presented a sermon to a mixed group of Indigenous and River People in one of the RP communities.

I would like to request prayer for the Gospel to spread through this region and for the impact of the children’s ministry in these communities to create disciples.  The infrastructure, support, training and commitment was obvious to us.  The MB are dedicated to seeing the CCI ministry program flourish and spread through the region, obeying the Great Commission, to unreached people for years to come!

I have many more stories to share with anyone who is interested. Please reach out to us as we have opportunities for you to join us on other adventures to visit our children’s ministry in Brazil, India and Cambodia!